The disposal of hypodermic needle syringes has been the subject of a great deal of interest in recent years because of the spread of various blood-transmitted diseases. In this respect, a number of medical personnel have been infected when they inadvertently stuck themselves with needles which had been used to treat infected patients.
A number of hypodermic needle disposal devices allow medical personnel to dispose of entire hypodermic syringes, including needle assemblies attached thereto. One such syringe and needle disposal system is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,488,643 to Pepper. A difficulty with these systems is that some medical personnel use syringes which are not disposable. For example, dentists normally use surgical stainless steel metallic hypodermic syringe frames in which vials containing anesthetics are inserted. The anesthetics are dispensed through disposable plastic needle assemblies mounted on the stainless steel syringe frames. These metallic hypodermic syringe frames are not disposable. Thus, it is an object of this invention, to provide a hypodermic needle disposal device which allows one to remove a hypodermic needle assembly from a hypodermic needle syringe and then dispose of the needle assembly without endangering medical personnel.
Some hypodermic needle assembly disposal devices include pawl-like members which allow a hypodermic needle assembly hub to pass one-way through a hole, but which fall into place behind the needle assembly hub to not allow it to be removed from the hole. Several such systems are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,876,067 to Schwarz and 4,351,434 to Elisha. Although it appears that these systems would work well for some hypodermic needle assembly arrangements, it is not thought that they would work well for those which are screwed onto spiral threads of hypodermic syringes because such pawl members usually do not retain the hypodermic needle assemblies from rotating when one unscrews the threads of the needle assemblies from the syringes. Thus, it is an object of this invention to provide a hypodermic needle removal and disposal device which allows medical personnel to quickly and efficiently remove a hypodermic needle assembly from a hypodermic syringe to which it is attached by spiral threads.
There are a number of hypodermic needle assembly removal devices having holes therein with teeth thereabout for gripping a hub of a hypodermic needle assembly to hold it still while a hypodermic syringe is screwed therefrom. Such arrangements are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,375,849 to Hanifl, 4,452,358 to Simpson, and 4,466,538 to Gianni. A difficulty encountered in using such devices is that it is awkward for medical personnel to rotate with one hand a syringe about its lengthwise axis for unscrewing its nozzle from a hub of a needle assembly. Thus, it is a further object of this invention to provide a hypodermic needle removal and disposal device with which a hypodermic needle assembly can be removed from a hypodermic syringe without rotating the syringe about its lengthwise axis.
It is also an object of this invention to provide a hypodermic needle removal and disposal device which is virtually completely safe and with which there is virtually no chance of an operator inadvertently puncturing himself or herself.